Editing Gnosticism (section)

==Development==
Three periods can be discerned in the development of Gnosticism:{{sfn|Perkins|2005|p=3530}}
* Late-first century and early second century: development of Gnostic ideas, contemporaneous with the writing of the New Testament;
* mid-second century to early third century: high point of the classical Gnostic teachers and their systems, "who claimed that their systems represented the inner truth revealed by Jesus";{{sfn|Perkins|2005|p=3530}}
* end of the second century to the fourth century: reaction by the proto-orthodox church and condemnation as heresy, and subsequent decline.

During the first period, three types of tradition developed:{{sfn|Perkins|2005|p=3530}}
* Genesis was reinterpreted in Jewish milieux, viewing [[Yahweh]] as a jealous God who enslaved people; freedom was to be obtained from this jealous God;
* A wisdom tradition developed, in which Jesus' sayings were interpreted as pointers to an esoteric wisdom, in which the soul could be divinized through identification with wisdom.{{sfn|Perkins|2005|p=3530}}{{refn|group=note|According to [[Earl Doherty]], a prominent proponent of the [[Christ myth theory]], the [[Q source|Q-authors]] may have regarded themselves as "spokespersons for the Wisdom of God'', with Jesus being the [[Wisdom (personification)|embodiment of this Wisdom]]. In time, the gospel-narrative of this embodiment of Wisdom became interpreted as the literal history of the life of Jesus.<ref name="JP-PPCO">{{cite journal|title=The Jesus Puzzle: Pieces in a Puzzle of Christian Origins|last=Doherty|first=Earl|journal=[[Journal of Higher Criticism]]|volume=4|issue=2|date=Fall 1997|url=http://jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/jhcjp.htm|access-date=2017-03-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608125009/http://jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/jhcjp.htm|archive-date=2008-06-08|url-status=dead}}</ref>}} Some of Jesus' sayings may have been incorporated into the gospels to put a limit on this development. The conflicts described in 1 Corinthians may have been inspired by a clash between this wisdom tradition and Paul's gospel of crucifixion and resurrection;{{sfn|Perkins|2005|p=3530}}
* A mythical story developed about the descent of a heavenly creature to reveal the Divine world as the true home of human beings.{{sfn|Perkins|2005|p=3530}} Jewish Christianity saw the Messiah, or Christ, as "an eternal aspect of God's hidden nature, his "spirit" and "truth", who revealed himself throughout sacred history".{{sfn|Magris|2005|p=3516}}

The movement spread in areas controlled by the [[Roman Empire]] and [[Arianism|Arian]] Goths,{{sfn|Halsall|2008|p=293}} and the [[Parthian Empire|Persian Empire]]. It continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, but decline also set in during the third century, due to a growing aversion from the Nicene Church, and the economic and cultural deterioration of the Roman Empire.{{sfn|Magris|2005|p=3519}} Conversion to Islam, and the [[Albigensian Crusade]] (1209–1229), greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though Mandaean communities still exist in Iraq, Iran and diaspora communities. Gnostic and pseudo-Gnostic ideas became influential in some of the philosophies of various esoteric [[mystical]] movements of the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier Gnostic groups.